A Place For Words: What's Your Wybourn Way?
What happened?
Ruth Ben-Tovim, artist and Creative Director of Encounters, ran an eight-month project on The Wybourn Estate, Sheffield, aimed at engaging residents in the estate's regeneration. The project was commissioned by Parkway, part of the Great Places Housing Group, who had recently taken over the management of the estate from the city council.
In Phase One of the project, Ruth and associate artist Sorrel Muggridge invited residents to take them on one-to-one walks on the estate. They used postcards as creative prompts, allowing residents to respond to questions through their route: 'take me to somewhere you fear', 'take me to where you fell in love', 'take me to a place you want to change'. In each location, the artists scribed residents' stories and memories and residents took photographs. Afterwards residents physically traced their journeys on a map. 42 people of all ages took part as 'walkers', allowing the artists to gather a wealth of local stories and see connections emerge between divided parts of the estate.
In Phase Two, the project took over a boarded up house on the Wybourn Estate. Downstairs, Architecture students from the University of Sheffield set up a creative consultation space, working with residents, designers and planners to generate ideas for the estate's physical regeneration. Upstairs, Ruth and Sorrel created an installation from the photos, maps and stories collected in Phase One. In one room they made a photo journal for each walker and displayed them for people to look at and overlaid tracings of the journeys on an enlarged map of the area on the wall. They laid turf in the second room and invited people to sit on the grass and view enlarged photographs and quotes from the walks. People from across Wybourn came to the official opening to see their neighbours' photos and stories displayed. At the end of the exhibition, each walker was presented with their own photo journal to keep. The architecture students created a book of ideas, based on their collaboration with residents, to be included in the planning process.
Project Gallery
What's Your Wybourn Way - participants walking
What's Your Wybourn Way House
Turfed room in house as part of final installation
What made it work?
- Dedicating time and attention to the recruitment of participants was key. The artists specifically looked for people of different ages and backgrounds and approached them in an unobtrusive way, meeting many of them in the street.
- The resident-directed walks. For the artists, these walks were the main part of the project and not a means to an end. The process gave many residents a feeling of ownership for the area which made them more willing to engage with the regeneration process. Several have joined the new tenants' group.
- Bringing local people together for the final exhibition. Giving people from across Wybourn the chance to share stories and memories bridged divides on the estate.
- Presenting everyday experience as valuable through high quality artwork.
